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THE SANITARY CODE 



OF THE 



PENTATEUCH 



HORACE HART. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY 



J3B-^atfjs of 13ililt Itnotokligc 
XXI 

THE SANITARY CODE 

OF THE 

PENTATEUCH 



BY THE 



REV. C. G. K. GILLESPIE, A.K.C., A.C.P, 

MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY, THE 

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF ORIENTALISTS, AND 

THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF HYGI?^NE AND DEMOGRAPHY 

CERTIFIED SANITARY INSPECTOR 

ASSOCIATE OF THE SANITARY INSTITUTE, ETC. 



FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 

CHICAGO 
148 & 150 Madison Street 

The Religions Tract Society^ London 



NEW YORK 
112 Fifth Avenue 










Rmerfcan University 

MAY S4 1929 



^3-_5CM4^1 



INTRODUCTION 



From time to time the thoughts of scientific 
sanitary reformers have been turned to the 
Levitical law, as containing a considerable num- 
ber of precepts obviously wise and practical in 
their direct bearing upon public health. Medi- 
cal men of eminence have set forward selections, 
and in a few cases summaries, of such precepts, 
as embodying, in forms apparently limited to 
a special people in a special climate, principles 
worthy of broader, and perhaps even universal 
application. But such summaries have not 
always grasped the whole scheme, or traced 
the reasons actually assigned, by those best 
qualified to inform us, for what have to some 
appeared almost arbitrary exclusions, based 
possibly on mystic doctrine, or unscientific clas- 
sifications merely exemplifying the simplicity 
of primitive times. 



6 INTRODUCTION 

On the other hand, Oriental scholars of great 
learning have dealt with these provisions rever- 
ently and thoroughly, so far as concerned the 
true linguistic and moral force of definitions 
and regulations, treating them as of unquestion- 
able value, and surrounding them with illustra- 
tions of great interest, but without indicating 
their truly scientific basis and system. The 
local fitness of each section and detail has been 
ascertained, and to a great extent demonstrated, 
by the latter form of research ; the underlying 
scientific principle has in several individual 
cases been shown by the former. 

The object of this book is to bring together 
these two sides of investigation, to indicate 
their real and complete harmony no less than 
the wideness of their common range, and by 
that harmony to show that in this most defi- 
nitely practical section of the common human 
life, as in all others, the Divine Word is the best 
and earliest guide. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGES 

Classification of the Code . . . . c^_i- 

CHAPTER II. 
Food . 16-32 

CHAPTER III. 

Uncleanness, Tactual and Personal . . . 33-44 

CHAPTER IV. 
Industrial Methods 45-54 

CHAPTER V. 
Sanitary Precautions 55-66 

CHAPTER VI. 
Sanitary Inspection 67-79 

CHAPTER VII. 

Notification of Infectious Disease and of In- 
sanitary Conditions 80-82 

CHAPTER VUl. 
Disinfection ....... 83-89 

Conclusion ........ 90-92 

List of Scripture References . . . . 93 

Index 94-96 



The chief authorities consulted in the preparation of this 
book have been : — 

' Targums/ in Walton's Biblia Polyglotla, 

Mishna. Treatises — Berachoth, GhoHn, Chelaim, Niddah, 
Shevi'ith, Shekalim, Pesachim, Bava Kama, Nega'im, 
Sukkah, Makshirin Editions^ Surenhuys, and others. 

Other Rabbinical treatises — Beth Jacob, Pesikta Rabbathi. 

BuxTORF, Synagoga Judaica, 

Critici Sacri. 

BocHART, Hierozoico7i. 

Damir and other Arabic writers, in Bochart. 

Mill, Catalecia Rahhinica, 

Iken, Antiquitates Hebraic ae. 

The Koran. 

Jahn, Archaeologica Biblica. 

LiGHTFOOT, Hebrew and Chaldee Exer citations. 

Calmet, Smith, Dictionaries of the Bible. 

Dr. Guy, Physician s Vade-mecum ; Public Health. 

Dr. Angus Smith, Disinfectants. 

Dr. Sir J. R. Bennett, Diseases of the Bible. 

Dr. S. Merrill, Galilee in the Ti?ne of Christ. 

H. C. Hart, Animals of the Bible. 

Fream, Elements of Agriculture. 



THE SANITARY CODE 



OF THE 



PENTATEUCH 



CHAPTER I 

CLASSIFICATION OF THE CODE 

Ancient Sanitary Science. — Jewish tradition continuous. — 
Population of the Holy Land. — Specified provisions of the 
Code. 

The critical investigations of recent years 
have done much to bring together the past 
and the present in matters of language, history, 
and even science. About the last the belief 
too commonly exists that our age is immeasur- 
ably ahead of all preceding times. Sanitary 
science is under wiser guidance. Its best 



lO THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

advocates among those who have access to 
the records of the past are ever ready to show 
that, however much we may have progressed 
in exactitude of diagnosis and classification, we 
owe to ancient investigators at least the germs 
of many modern helps to healthy life. One 
of these, the late Dr. Angus Smith, proved 
this in several interesting notes on early 
methods of disinfection, citing Homer, Hippo- 
crates, Pliny, Justinian, and some ancient 
Egyptians, with good effect, to show that in 
this, as in other departments of knowledge, 
much had been forgotten, and rediscovered by 
modern research. The task now before us is 
to take the Book most widely known among 
us, the beginnings of which antedate all other 
history, and to trace some directions given 
more than three thousand years ago, in the 
Mosaic code, to a people whose representative 
descendants claim that law (Torah) as still 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE CODE 1 1 

their own, and as the efficient cause of their 
survival as a strong and separate race. 

To deal with this code, in matters distinctly 
local and national, however wide their possible 
application outside, without availing ourselves 
of the light thrown upon them by Jewish 
comment and practice, would be doubly un- 
wise. The best exponents of actual usage are 
those through whom unbroken tradition has 
been handed down from days in which the 
Jewish nation still existed in the Holy Land : 
and the peculiarities of language and thought 
belonging to the East are best adapted for our 
understanding through the explanations of those 
who may fairly be accounted the best linguists, 
and, in their own departments, the most prac- 
tical people in the world. The fact that Jews 
are found everywhere, amidst surroundings the 
most various, still in effect following the same 
code in daily life, is enough to give it a strong 



12 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

claim on our attention and respect, not neces- 
sarily from the religious side alone, but also 
from the point of view of pure social science. 
It is therefore proposed to classify the par- 
ticulars as they appear in the English Bible, of 
which the Revised Version is in this regard 
specially accurate, and to add to the light 
thus given some illustrative comments from 
the most trustworthy sources, ancient and 
modern. 

It should be understood that the complicated 
machinery of modern town or even village life 
finds here but few counterparts. But even 
with this consideration the difference between 
our conditions and those of the Israelites in 
the Holy Land is one rather of degree than 
of essence. Remove the smoke, render the 
sewers innocuous, assume that the ordinary 
work of life will be carried on by the worker 
with the intelligent desire to make the best of 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE CODE 1 3 

life for himself and his neighbours, and we shall 
find very much in this code which can with 
great advantage be adopted or adapted in each 
English home. It may be imagined that the 
first two foregoing assumptions are insufficient, 
on the ground of wide disparity of population. 
But careful reference shows that for some 
centuries the population of the Holy Land, 
which was crowded with cities, towns, and 
villages, in all probability exceeded i,ooo per 
square mile, and in Galilee approached 1,500 
in the same space, thus being comparable 
with that of Lancashire, the most widely 
populous of our own counties. The accounts 
of Josephus would very largely increase this 
estimate. 

It is not proposed to encumber these pages 
with long lists of authorities, or with more 
than brief quotations. It seems, however, 
convenient to state here that full reference has 



14 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

been made throughout to the original text, the 
Targums, and the Talmud ; many independent 
writers of early days, Jewish, classical Chris- 
tian, and Mahomedan, have been brought under 
contribution, and the latest experts have been 
consulted in corroboration. 

The code gives stringent regulations in the 
following sections : — 

I. Prohibitions against impurity inseparable 
from 

(i) Improper food. 

(2) Improper industrial methods. 

' 2. Definitions of impurity caused by 
(i) Disease, infectious or ordinary. 

(2) Natural conditions requiring special 

treatment. 

(3) Contact with an unclean thing or 

person. 

(4) Objectionable but not forbidden food. 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE CODE I 5 

3. Sanitary precautions. 

(i) Structural and general. 

(2) By isolation. 

(3) By periodical inspection. 

(4) By occasional and special inspection of 

houses, persons, and animals. 

4. Notification of 

(i) Infectious or possibly infectious disease. 

(2) Insanitary conditions of house or cloth- 
ing. 

5. Disinfection. 

In almost all these cases full scientific reasons 
have been found, as given by the authorities 
already noted. 



CHAPTER II 

FOOD 

Dietetic reasons for prohibition. — Exclusion of Carnivora. — 
Camel. — Rock-badger. — Hare. — Pig. — Weasel. — Mouse.— Pro- 
hibitions as to clean animals. — Reverence for Life. — Heathen 
cruelty. — Moral effects of improper food.— Unclean birds. — 
Unfitness not necessarily vileness. — Fish. —Insects. — Reptiles. — 
Polluting forms of death.— Vegetable food. 

It seems desirable to consider first the 
prohibitions in respect of food. In some cases 
a moral reason is assigned as in itself sufficient ; 
but whenever possible the directly sanitary 
reason will be stated. Mlinster notes, as the 
spirit of Jewish belief, that unclean food gene- 
rates putrefaction and various ailments which 
hinder men in the service of God, making 
them listless and weary towards good works, 



FOOD 1 7 

weakens digestive power, and reduces the 
whole body to disorganization, so that the 
spirit is valueless for anything distinguished, 
just as if a bright light were confined in an 
ill-formed lantern. With practically only two 
exceptions (those of Lev. xxiii. 14 being 
religious delays), all the prohibitions in this 
class refer to animal food. They are given in 
full in Lev. xi., Deut. xiv. It is noticeable 
that only six beasts are excluded by name, 
the camel, rock-badger (coney), hare, pig, 
weasel, mouse ; while ten are expressly sanc- 
tioned, representing four extensive kinds, ox, 
sheep, goat, and deer. Except in the special 
case of locusts, the permitted animals are 
named only in this section, from which the 
largest supply of such food would naturally be 
drawn. The tests given (Inspection, ch. vi) 
that quadrupeds for food must be cloven-footed 

and ruminant, are left as sufficient in all other 

B 



1 8 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

cases, absolutely excluding all carnivora ; and 
these six are named as by their visible characters 
illustrating apart conditions which in the clean 
are combined. 

The Camel. Apart from the importance of 
preserving this animal as the most valuable 
beast of burden, several reasons appear to 
render it unsuitable for food. It has a rank 
smell, and its flesh, though edible, is hard and 
really unwholesome. This is acknowledged 
by Arabic tradition (though not by Arabic 
practice), which says that Jacob forbade it to 
his descendants on account of an illness in the 
desert which he could assign to no other cause. 
Others find sufficient reason for the prohibition 
in the malicious vindictiveness of this stupid 
beast, which, however doggedly patient, is 
never the friend of man. 

The RocK-BADGER (coney), Hyrax, is of in- 
termediate and scarcely defined race, which 



FOOD 19 

was much discussed in early times. Rabbi 
Gershom accounts for its exclusion as being 
multiparous, and so resembling the cat, hare, 
and mouse, all unclean. It is only apparently 
ruminant, and, though not always accurately 
identified by old writers, is very often classed 
with the mouse kind, as the shrew-mouse, which 
being in Egypt held sacred to Bast, the chief 
goddess there, may have been on that account 
additionally repulsive. If a true badger, it is 
omnivorous. 

The Hare, also only apparently ruminant, is 
noted as objectionable, not only as multiparous, 
but as often producing deformed offspring. 
Early medical writers describe it as causing its 
eater thick and dark blood. It is mentioned as 
of the most debased instincts, and as becoming 
increasingly impure with age. 

The Pig (swine) is more frequently than any 
other beast referred to as illustrative of un- 

B 2 



20 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

cleanness, in which connexion are specified its 
unscrupulousness in food, its tendency to skin 
disease, and to that known as swine fever 
(typhoid), and its dirty habits. Rambam (Mai- 
monides) adds very strong terms as to the 
impossibihty of preserving, in camp or city, the 
cleanHness required by the law if this animal 
were kept for food. R. Bachia ben Asher and 
others record, as a general medical belief, that 
its milk produces leprosy. Clement of Alex- 
andria says that the flesh of animals subject to 
growth of fat, and to corpulence, was wisely 
forbidden, and compares, as has been done in 
every age, the pig's life with that of the lowest 
class of human beings. The fatal effects of 
trichinosis from this food are now well known, 
as well as the development of tapeworm from 
the cystocercus of ' measly ' pork. 

The Weasel. Two stories are told of this 
carnivorous and mischievous animal in the 



FOOD 21 

Talmud, in connexion with its danoferous 
ferocity. In one it carries out the punishment 
of a breach of promise by biting the neck of 
the offender's Httle boy, who dies ; in the other 
it strangles with its body an infant of three 
months. In an Arabic legend of the fall of 
Bagdad it appears as killing little children, 
and inflicting bites on men and women. This 
and the following are placed among ' creeping 
things,' with several land reptiles, probably on 
account of their small size. 

The Mouse, useless, noxious, exceedingly 
destructive to the best kinds of necessary food, 
prolific and multiparous, defiling all it touches, 
scarcely needs the additional note of Bochart, 
that no one would eat the domestic mouse 
while there was anything else to eat. The 
prohibition in this and other cases seems clearly 
generic. A curious belief appears in the ques- 
tion, Why does the dog recognize his master, 



2 2 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

the cat not ? The answer being, Because the 
cat eats mice, which disturb the brain, and mar 
the memory. 

Two general prohibitions apply to clean 
animals. Fat and blood are forbidden. 

Of the former it has been thought that only 
the suet is meant, and this only of animals 
killed in sacrifice. In all such cases one special 
word, ghelev, is used. It seems possible that the 
ordinary fat, mishman, was allowed, especially 
when enclosed in the flesh, if Neh. viii. lo is to 
be read literally. The expediency of this law 
in the climate of Palestine needs no proof. 

Of blood it must be noted that above all 
dietetic considerations is the moral one of 
reverence for life per se. This had a very 
special bearing on the whole social condition 
of the Jewish people. If it became necessary 
to kill, death must be inflicted in the most 
swift and merciful manner possible, of which the 



FOOD 23 



rapid outpouring of the blood was an evidence. 
(Too great a digression would be needed to 
detail here the rules for the slaughterer, or to 
indicate the merciful methods of capital punish- 
ment.) [Inspection, chap, vi.] This is ex- 
pounded as referring, by contrast, to the heathen 
cruelty of severing for food a part of a living 
animal, and to the eating of raw meat. On the 
consideration of blood itself as food there are 
few bold enough to include it as commendable, 
one exception being somewhat curiously made 
in the case of pig's blood in black puddings, 
but without more than doubtful toleration, and 
certainly without scientific evidence of its fit- 
ness. On this, and the necessity of proper 
methods of slaughter. Christian converts from 
heathenism were admonished by the apostolic 
synod of Jerusalem, Acts xv. 

It has been seen that prohibition extends to 
all beasts of prey, that is, carnivora, whose flesh 



24 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

is always rank and unwholesome, and subject 
to parasites. The same is observable in the 
list of birds, which includes insectivora. These 
are classified as (i) Rapacious, as flesh and fish 
eaters ; (2) Lacustrine, as impure feeders ; (3) 
Nocturnal, as presumably, if not certainly, impure 
feeders or carnivorous, since they feed in secret; 
(4) the ostrich, as indiscriminate in its food 
and feeding its young on its unhatched eggs. 

Of the ostrich it may be noted that its 
Hebrew name is derived from its greediness, 
and that the words here used (bath haydanaJi) 
mean ' daughter of the ostrich ' (greedy one). 
It is described as undeveloped, having wings, 
yet never rising from the earth ; and though 
the Arabs sometimes eat the young bird, here 
perhaps specified, the flesh is really indigestible, 
as also the egg, and unwholesome. Its dis- 
position is, like that of the camel, malicious and 
revengeful. 



FOOD 25 

On the well-known ancient belief that men 
acquire the habits of those animals whose flesh 
they eat, and in the tending or capture of which 
their time may be spent, these are morally 
classified, as tending to produce (i) love of 
rapine rather than peaceful and productive in- 
dustry ; (2) disregard of cleanliness and purity 
of life. 

A further arrangement of the unclean birds 
(of which Rambam notes that practically twenty- 
four, but really many more, are specified), 
according to their food, may be convenient 
here. (1) Carnivorous and predaceous, taking 
their prey alive — lammergeier (bearded vulture, 
ossifrage), glede^ black-winged kite (vulture), 
owl (night hawk), hawk (two kinds), little and 
great owl, horned owl (?) (swan). (2) Carrion 
eaters and scavengers — eagle (which attacks 
only under necessity), (black) kite, raven (many 
kinds), Egyptian vulture (gier eagle), stork. 



26 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

(3) Piscivorous — osprey, red kite (vulture), sea- 
mew (cuckow), pelican, cormorant, heron. (4) 
Insectivorous — hoopoe (lapwing), [bat]. (5) 
Omnivorous — ostrich. Of these the Egyptian 
vulture is described as ' the foulest feeder that 
lives/ an evil distinction shared, if not sur- 
passed, according to ancient writers, by the 
hoopoe, feeding by preference on dunghill 
worms. Of this bird some curious legends 
are given in the Talmud, and in the Koran, 
in connexion with King Solomon, who is said 
to have used it as a water-finder, and for 
other magical purposes. 

The Bat is included among ' flying things/ 
in which regard it is, apart from science, most 
conspicuous. The abominable stench of its 
Eastern haunts is mentioned by Layard. This 
and some other peculiarities of description will 
be dealt with under Inspection. 

The question, Why are the clean beasts 



FOOD 27 

but the unclean birds named ? is answered 
by the consideration that the smaller number 
is taken in each case, the unclean among 
beasts, the clean among birds, being the 
more numerous. At least ten clean birds 
are mentioned in Holy Scripture, but not in 
the present connexion. It is, perhaps, worth 
while to note that life, the ordained reverence 
for which is referred to above, seems to 
preserve from ceremonial impurity as from 
corruption. Not only is the pollution con- 
veyed by the unclean apparently deferred till 
their death, the touch of the carcase defiling, 
but not the touch of the same animal when 
living (though some Rabbins seem to regard 
living reptiles as defiling) ; but in several 
cases good, even noble qualities are assigned 
to animals forbidden as food. The ass, set 
apart for the use of persons of high rank ; 
the eagle, often cited as exemplifying swift- 



28 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

ness and power, and once even taken as 
symbolizing God's care of His people ; the 
hawk, as Divinely gifted with instinct ; the 
horse, as strong and fearless ; the lion, emblem 
of the tribe of Judah, and of the greatness and 
power of Israel ; the raven, as fed by God's 
providence. This fact shows that the separa- 
tion of these as unclean does not imply inherent 
evil nature, but has a specific purpose, which 
convergent scientific and historical testimony 
proves to have been the sanitary regulation 
of food. 

It is probable that fish was very largely eaten 
by the Israelites in Egypt and in the Holy 
Land. The name of the Fish Gate of Jerusalem 
seems to indicate this as a matter of extensive 
trade. Supplies were got from the Mediter- 
ranean, as well as the Sea of Galilee. The 
importance of the fishing industry there is shown 
by the provision against monopoly, traditionally 



FOOD 29 

ascribed to Joshua (among his ' ten laws '), that 
any one should be free to spread his nets on the 
Sea of Tiberias. Large quantities were salted. 
The conditions requiring both fins and scales, 
held to exclude aquatic reptiles, amphibia, shell 
fish, and mollusks generally, left for food an 
immense supply. They forbid, among true 
fishes, only the sheat (silurus, abundant in the 
Sea of Galilee), lamprey, eel, and skate (all 
such are in Egypt accounted unfit for food). 
Of these the first is unknown as eatable, and 
the second and third are notorious as carrion 
eaters and as unwholesome, and the last was, 
until recent fashion, regarded as coarse and 
innutritions. 

Of insects ' going upon all fours,' that is, 
walking as quadrupeds do, four kinds alone 
are sanctioned, which are almost certainly 
four kinds or developments of the locust, a 
feeder upon grain and other pure human foods. 



30 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

The Targum of Palestine specifies as unclean 
the fly, wasp, and bee kinds, but mentions the 
honey of the bee as permitted. 

Few reptiles are named, among ' creeping 
things,' called by early naturalists oviparous 
quadrupeds, as the next step to scientific 
classification : the great lizard (tortoise), gecko 
(ferret), land crocodile (chameleon), lizard, sand- 
lizard (snail), chameleon (mole), all exceedingly 
common in Palestine, and all really of the one 
lizard family. The first is described by Damir 
and other Arabic writers as devouring its off- 
spring. All are really insectivorous, the larger 
kinds living chiefly on beetles. The Arabs 
believe the bite of some to be poisonous, and 
in the Talmudic treatise Berachoth it is said 
to be as fatal as that of a mad dog. This 
belief extends to the similar lagarta of La 
Plata, which, in some kinds, is of great size, 
extending to a length of six feet. 



FOOD 31 



The eating of that which died of itself, or 
that which was torn, though permitted, is dis- 
couraged by the penalty of a day's uncleanness 
and the need of purification. But the flesh of 
an ox stoned for goring was totally forbidden. 
On a parallel passage of the Koran, M. ben 
Achmet adds that which was suffocated, killed 
by blows; by accident, or gored. The conges- 
tion any of these causes of death would pro- 
duce seems sufficient dietetic disqualification. 
In the treatise Gholin is an assertion, curiously 
discussed in the Gemara, that in this category 
should be included birds killed with a knife 
instead of the thumb-nail (Lev. i. 15, v. 8). 

Of the two references to vegetable food by 
way of prohibition, in both cases temporary, 
that concerning ' uncircumcised ' fruit, Lev. xix. 
23, comes fitly in this place. On this, Aben 
Ezra remarks, as the physical reason, that the 
fruit of the first three years is no less unwhole- 



32 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

some and injurious than are the unclean fish 
and other animals forbidden. De Muis adds 
that the first firuits of land hitherto untilled 
have something wild and unhealthy in them. 
The laws referring to leaven, and to the defile- 
ment of clean food, will be considered under 
Inspection. 

It should be clearly understood that the 
foregoing sanitary reasons are simply given as 
they are stated or suggested by Jewish writers 
of the highest reputation in the old days 
of Hebrew learning, with some few modern 
scientific corroborations. The same principle 
will be followed throughout. Illustrations from 
Arabic writers, including the Koran, are given 
as adding some local colour, in the debased 
form of tradition that book contains, from the 
accurate knowledge of the conditions of life in 
Palestine which many such writers possessed. 



CHAPTER III 

UNCLEANNESS, TACTUAL AND PERSONAL 

Grades of impurity.— Spread by contact. — Dilution. — Porous 
vessels. — Sources of Impurity. — Human death. — Early burial. 
— Treatment of the corpse. — Leprosy. — Plague in a house. — 
Its chemical causes. 

Uncleanness : Tactual and Personal. — There 
are six Talmudical grades of uncleanness, father s 
father, father, first, second, third, and fourth 
sons. The father of fathers of uncleanness is 
the primary cause, as the spring of infection ; 
the expression showing a perception that a 
single pernicious influence may in various 
organisms form separate centres of different 
evils. The father is a body fully infected and 
infectious, a source of defilement, polluting all 

c 



34 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

it touches ; the first son of uncleanness receives 
from this the infection, communicable in less 
degree to the second, from this to the third, 
from this to the fourth; these polluting only 
food and drink, except that liquids pollute their 
vessels. 

Thus two principles are shown. (i) The 
direct spread of infection by contact ; (2) its 
mitigation by subdivision. If a dead reptile 
(father) fell into w^ater in a vessel, the water 
(first son) polluted the vessel (second son) : 
but running water, or a large quantity in a pit, 
was not polluted. Otherwise stated, a noxious 
solution in a vessel is dangerous, and when 
poured away the vessel must be cleansed ; but 
largely diluted it becomes harmless. 

The contaminating influence of dead reptiles 
is so specially noted in the law, that they head 
the list compiled by Jewish writers. The 
probable reason is that such animals, most 



UNCLEANNESS, TACTUAL AND PERSONAL 35 

kinds of which greatly abound in Palestine, 
might more easily than others, but for peculiar 
watchfulness and care, be inadvertently allowed 
to die and rot in the houses, which under 
ordinary circumstances they would frequently 
enter. The assiduous care for their exclusion 
thus contributed to order, cleanliness, and 
health. The remarkable fact that while vessels 
of other material could be purified with water, 
the pot, oven, or ' range for pots ' (Lev. xi. 35), 
all made of porous earthenware, must be de- 
stroyed; a very significant hint on the conveyance 
of putrescible or infectious matter by absorp- 
tion. 

The carcase of a clean animal properly killed 
did not defile. But a curiously instructive 
question is discussed between Rabbi Juda and 
R. Nehemiah. If a clean bird be bitten by 
an unclean beast, should the wound be ex- 
amined with the finger or with a probe ? The 

C 2 



36 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

records of surgical blood-poisoning, celhditis 
venenata, illustrate this prevision of some very 
early interpreters of the Law of Health in 
Purity. 

The sources, fathers of fathers of unclean- 
ness, were five, a corpse, a diseased issue, a 
carcase, and two natural conditions ; to which 
idolatry was added as a father of four fathers. 
These five were held to include the eleven 
species named in the Law, which were classed 
thus: (i) Reptile; (2) carcase; (3) corpse; 
(4 and 5) diseased issue (two forms) ; (6) leprosy ; 
(7) water of purification (Num. xix.) ; (8) a 
natural act, and (9 and 10) two natural con- 
ditions • (11) the propitiatory parts of a 
sacrifice. Of the natural conditions (Lev. xv.) 
it can only be noted here that reverent Bible 
students find its pure moral teachings in the 
strongest way confirmed by medical and sani- 
tary science, and that the highly contagious, 



UNCLEANNESS, TACTUAL AND PERSONAL l"] 

if not infectious character of puerperal fever, 
however caused, of itself is sufficient reason for 
some of these truly sanitary precautions. The 
essential idea of 1 1 is that the thing set apart 
as holy to God is not for man to touch, so 
that irreverence is uncleanness. In this sense 
the Canonical Books ' defile the hands/ The 
water of purification has a kindred connotation, 
as if to show that they who act for the cleansing 
of others must recognize its need for them- 
selves. (4) The diseased issue covers an 
extensive range of pollutions not calling for 
detail, but evidently demanding the most 
thorough sanitary treatment. It is well to 
observe (Disinfection) the minute fulness of 
the law on the treatment of these cases, in 
some instances of vital importance to the indi- 
vidual and to others. These are again traced 
in thirty-two separate instances, the additions, 
as in the law itself, consisting of secondary and 



38 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

tertiary forms and materials of pollution, the 
plague in a house being treated by itself. 

In reality the most severe form of ceremonial 
uncleanness is that connected v/ith human death 
(Num. xix.). Taking the dead body as the 
father of uncleanness (the cause of fatal disease 
being the father's father), the following grades 
appear : — 

{a) Every one touching it is unclean (first 
son), 
If the death was in a tent, 

Everything in it, except any vessel with 
closely-tied lid, is unclean, 
{d) Every one entering it is unclean (first 
son), 
Everything touched by any of these is 
unclean (second son) for seven days. 
Whoever touches any of the last-mentioned is 
unclean (third son) till evening. 

Further, ^ or ^ must on the third day take 



UNCLEANNESS, TACTUAL AND PERSONAL 39 

intermediate steps towards the removal of his 
impurity. Jewish writers add, no doubt with 
truth so far as the spirit of the law is concerned, 
that defilement would be contracted by the 
insertion of hand or head : and R. Solomon 
ben Jarchi seems to exclude from pollution the 
contents only of a vessel with cemented lid. 
The Targum of Palestine adds an instructive 
gloss : Every earthen vessel which has no 
covering fastened upon its mouth which would 
have kept it separate from the uncleanness, is 
defiled by uncleanness of the air which touches 
its mouth and its interior, and not only the 
outside of it. 

Several useful effects appear from these laws, 
reaching beyond their direct influence. Their 
stringency tended to cause early burial, before 
sunset on the day of death, which, compulsory 
by the law in the case of one hanged (Deut. 
xxi. 23), and in Jerusalem by Rabbinical pre- 



40 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

cept in all cases, became the general practice. 
Thus also it encouraged a great simplicity in the 
funeral arrangements ; and the fixing of the 
first lustration of those touching the body for 
the third day, checked neglectful and irreverent 
haste ; all of which were of definite sanitary 
value. 

The body was washed, sometimes anointed 
(Matt. xxvi. 6), dressed nearly as in life, 
swathed in bandages (Acts v.), neither nu- 
merous nor costly, with spices in the folds. 
None of these usages appear to have been in 
contemplation of preserving it from decay, as 
in the detested Egyptian custom. This is 
shown by the remark of Martha (John xi. 39). 
The object seems rather to have been the 
mitigation of all possible offensiveness up to 
the time of burial. Special precautions were 
taken in other ways to prevent this. Luke 
vii, 14 indicates the startling effects produced 



UNCLEANNESS, TACTUAL AND PERSONAL 4 1 

on the bearers when the Lord Jesus touched 
the bier. 

When the burial was in a grave the whole of 
the earth above the body was held unclean, as 
indeed the law practically puts it (Num. xix. i6). 
Thus effluvium was avoided. Out of this arose 
the custom of leaving above the body a covered 
space, held to intercept the uncleanness, and 
really facilitating dispersion of the gases of 
decay. 

Before leaving this section it should be noted 
that the law as to a tent was naturally in later 
days applied to the room, and even to the house 
in which death took place ; and that no sanction 
for any form of cremation exists in Jewish 
writings. 

On Leprosy more has probably been written 
than on any other disease mentioned in the 
Bible. Few^ details are, therefore, needed. 
(Lev. xii. xiii.) For the present it seems 



42 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE TENTATEUCII 

sufficient to note that apparent and true 
leprosy are carefully differentiated. An im- 
portant point is that in one stage or perhaps 
variety it seems to include a form of scabies or 
itch of a character sufficiently contagious to 
demand isolation. Lepra Arabum, Elephan- 
tiasis Tuberculosa and Anaesthetica, is clearly 
stated to be spread by contact. (Ch. viii.) 
The leper was said to pollute a house and all 
in it by his entrance, though without contact. 
Even to stand or walk under a tree under 
which a leper sat involved defilement. 

Plague in a House. (Lev. xiv.) Just as 
salt in plaister absorbs moisture, which in dry 
weather evaporates, leaving marks of efflores- 
cence, so any other improper and unwholesome 
element in plaister, mortar, wood, or porous 
stone, is found to show itself after the lapse of 
time. Sewage matter which has once leaked 
over a basement, can sometimes for years be 



UNCLEANNESS, TACTUAL AND PERSONAL 43 

traced by marks on the absorbent wall. The 
description appUes expressly to ' a house of the 
land of your possession,' thus in the first place 
to houses already built and occupied by heathens 
before the Israelitish settlement. The many 
signs of contrast in religion and morals marking 
the law of purity as opposed to the abomina- 
tions of the heathen may enable us easily to 
recognize that in sanitary matters the former 
occupants probably often left much to be 
desired. The general belief is stated by Jahn, 
that this was the common nitrous recrudescence, 
rotting away the materials, then falling off in 
imperceptible particles, tainting the air of the 
rooms, and injuring the health of the inmates : 
and being inherent in the structure, was incur- 
able and certain to spread, thus demanding the 
strongest measures of suppression. The ' salt- 
petre rot ' is distinctly traced to solutions of 
putrefying refuse under the basement, or in 



44 "THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

contact with some part of the walls. The 
coloured stains can be caused by traces of 
metallic salts, as sulphuret of iron, &c., com- 
monly found in building stone. That the un- 
wholesomeness is not here regarded as infectious 
is shown by the removal of the contents of the 
house as not polluted by its plague, which 
might be the case during subsequent opera- 
tions. 



CHAPTER IV 

INDUSTRIAL METHODS 

Agriculture. — Cattle breeding and treatment. — Textile fabrics. 
— Days of rest. 

The bearing of prohibitions on the subject 
of industrial methods is not in all cases directly 
sanitary, but may fairly be considered in relation 
to the general welfare in things physical. Six 
are against confusion, and are interpreted in the 
moral sense, as enforcing patience with the order 
of nature, as against rash and prejudicial experi- 
ments. They forbid : (i) Mixture of seeds on 
the same land at the same time ; (2) Sowing 
in a vineyard ; (3) Cross-breeding of cattle ; 
(4) Cross-grafting of vines (all fruit trees 
probably understood); (5) Yoking together 



46 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

animals of different kinds ; (6) Use of mixed 
fibres in dress material, Lev. xix. 19, Deut. 
xxii. 9-1 1 ; (7) Work on the seventh day; 
(8) Work on national holy days. 

Agriculturists generally recognize that certain 
conditions of soil indicate fertility, but that 
each variety of plants requires for its best 
development special constituents. It follows 
that, other things being equal, the exhaustion 
of the soil by a crop of one kind will leave it 
in better condition for use in the next season 
requiring different constituents, some of which 
the former will have contributed, than if both 
had been attempted at the same time and 
place. The well-known principle of rotation 
of crops, which seems to have been used in 
early days, is an extension of this consideration. 
An alteration in cropping allows plants of 
various orders to take up in turn the several parts 
of the manurial food in the proportion of their 



INDUSTRIAL METHODS 47 

needs. This variation also removes the food 
of insects peculiar to each succeeding crop, 
so that they die out. These purposes would 
be defeated by mixture of seeds, and all pro- 
duction would be weakened. Again, as to 
pastures, it is observed that neglected grass 
land produces the largest number of separate 
species of plants, almost necessarily weeds. 
Thus this law tended to greater industry over 
a larger area ; the limitation of one kind to 
each piece of ground encouraged special at- 
tention to each useful product according to its 
purpose ; and every improvement, by supplying 
better food to man and beast, was of direct 
sanitary value (the work of the seventh year. 
Lev. XXV. 4, was the cleaning and manuring of 
the land). 

The great wealth of vegetable production in 
fruit, herbs, grain, and grass, fills up a very 
long list even in the present comparative 



48 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

neglect of agriculture in Palestine, where, but 
for these salutary laws, crowding, confusion, 
and deterioration must have existed. Some 




ingenious devices were employed to utilize as 
much as possible of the soil while fulfilling 
these precepts. In gardens planted in rows, 



INDUSTRIAL METHODS 



49 



a space of three furrows must be left between 
any two kinds, which could be used as a path 
for tending or gathering. Four oblong beds 
sown with four kinds were marked out as the 




boundaries of a square ; the middle points of 
the sides being joined formed a second square 
inscribed in this, and a fifth bed, the five meet- 
ing only at corners. (Fig. i.) A space of four 

D 



50 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

cubits, about five feet, from the root of each 
vine or other tree being left, grain could be 
sown in the centre space. (Fig. 2.) In the 
last century an attempt was made to revive 
this plan in England, in the belief that both 
fruit and grain would profit by it. 

The total sterility of mules is an extreme 
instance of one penalty in this connexion. But 
there can be little doubt that the intention was 
to maintain the prepotency of a pure and strong 
stock. This law against cross-breeding does 
not imply approval of breeding in and in, which 
tends to delicacy of constitution, but rather 
establishes the system of pure breeding among, 
it may be, many families of one original stock, 
the good qualities of which they perpetuate. 
Three important advantages are mentioned : 
the cost of rearing is never more, sometimes 
less, than in other cases ; there will be less 
offal in the carcase, and the solid parts will 



INDUSTRIAL METHODS 5 I 

have more substance, and be more wholesome 
for food. 

The practice of yoking together animals 
of different kinds is evidently merciful to both 
animals. The stronger would often be im- 
patient, the weaker overtaxed. The character 
of their paces being widely different, much 
strain would be caused to each of them, tending 
to lower their condition. Even two horses 
cannot at once run well together, and till they 
know each other s paces both suffer. 

With regard to the use of mixed fibres in 
dress material, the very curious compound word 
shdatnez, used only in this precept, has always 
been in some degree a crttx to Hebrew etymo- 
logists. But no doubt exists as to the general 
fitness of the rendering given. The Talmudical 
explanation of this word as meaning ' curled, 
spun, and twisted,' is based upon the uncertain 
assumption of its Hebrew origin. But con- 

D 2 



52 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

tinuous tradition has identified it with the 
special mixture described (Deut. xxii. ii) of 
linen and woollen, as if this mixture only were 
forbidden : and a passage in the treatise 
Chelaim actually does limit the prohibition to 
these two fibres. In Niddah is a further re- 
laxation : a garment in which wool and flax 
are undistinguishable is condemned, but it may 
be used as a shroud. The description of the 
high priest's dress (Ex. xxviii.) has always been 
assumed to indicate such a mixture, which 
Josephus expressly states to have been reserved 
for the priests. There is, however, reason to 
believe that the dyed woollen threads were 
there used only for embroidery on the linen. 
Two notes may suffice in conclusion. The for- 
bidden fabric, linsey-woolsey, which many of us 
may remember as surviving in our youth, did 
not hold a high reputation. Johnson observes 
that the word was a synonym for * mean, vile,' 



INDUSTRIAL METHODS 53 

like the more modern ' shoddy.' From the 
sanitary side, it may fairly be regarded as but 
imperfectly suited to ordinary work, as not easy 
to clean, and totally unfit for sickroom wear, as 
a ready vehicle of infection. It is plain that 
the whole idea of adulteration is condemned by 
these precepts. 

The literature of the seventh-day rest is 
sufficiently extensive to render unnecessary 
more than brief reference here to its hygienic 
value. Physiologists have long recognized that 
short intermissions of work at regular intervals 
constitute the form of variety most conducive 
to health, and that no other period has been 
found so suitable as that of seven days for the 
balancing of physical and mental waste and 
reparation. It is interesting to note the very 
definite way in which the further advantage of 
national days of rest at irregular but de- 
fined intervals has been recognized in the 



54 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

modern institution of Bank Holidays. These, 
with the Feasts of the Church, would be far 
more beneficial to the larger number if, as in 
the case of the Jewish Feasts, they were ob- 
served with definite reason, and under the con- 
trolling influence which guarded their joy from 
irreverence or vicious excess. It has been 
forcibly put that the immunity of Jews from 
many forms of disease is due to the joyful 
character of their faith and its observances, 
as an important factor in its general sanitary 
value. There is absolutely no reason ex- 
cluding Christians from participation in like 
advantages. 



CHAPTER V 

SANITARY PRECAUTIONS 

Structural: Flat battlemented roof.— Open spaces. — Whited 
sepulchres. General : Covering and removal of refuse. — 
Cleansing of streets, cisterns, and wells. — Water supply. — 
Specification of forbidden nuisances. — Traditions of Gehenna. — 
Isolation. — Incubation period. — The leper's place. — Ceremonial 
defilement. — Cleansing of garments. 

Every house-builder was required to erect 
a battlement on the roof, Deut. xxii. 8, for the 
primary purpose of preventing accidental death 
by falling. By Talmudic rule the parapet 
must be at least two cubits high. But a refer- 
ence to the conditions of life in a city or walled 
town at once shows the sanitary value of the 
very great area of open space thus provided. 
With a mean temperature in the highlands of 
70*3° F., ranging from ss*;"" in March to 79*3° 



56 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

in August, that of the lowlands being naturally 
higher, the existence of this space on each 
house, still almost universal, is of inestimable 
value for household work, drying, sleeping, &c. 
Being often reached by an outside staircase, 
this affords ready means of egress. It is re- 
corded of Christians at Aleppo that during 
time of plague they used the housetops adjoin- 
ing for communication, to avoid passing through 
the streets. 

Whiting of sepulchres, though not mentioned 
in the Law, was a direct consequence of the 
provisions concerning defilement by the dead. 
Many of these buildings were of such size and 
form as to be easily mistaken for houses but 
for this precaution, repeated annually after the 
' latter ' rain of spring. The time chosen for 
this was the fifteenth day of the month Adar, 
thus four weeks before the Passover. On that 
day they began to mend the roads, streets, and 



SANITARY PRECAUTIONS 57 

sewers, and to paint the sepulchres. The pur- 
pose is thus stated : that they may be Hke the 
leper, who cries out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' 
here uncleanness cries out, ' Come not near ! ' 

Among general direct sanitary precautions 
are that of Deut. xxiii. 12, 13, corresponding in 
principle exactly to the earth-closet ; Lev. xvii. 
13, soaking up and covering the blood with 
dust (some prefer to render this by ' ashes ') ; 
Lev. vi. II, daily removal of the ashes of the 
burnt-offerings to a clean place. To these may 
fairly be added, as consequences of the training 
given as to cleanness of life, the daily sweeping 
of the streets of Jerusalem, and the very re- 
markable system of reservoirs, aqueducts, rain 
conductors and cisterns there, and of cisterns 
and wells throughout the country. Almost 
every private house in the whole land had (and 
has) its ' own cistern,' some having more than 
one, excavated in the limestone rock or walled 



58 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

and cemented, preserving the water pure and 
sweet through the hottest season. 

Of the extent of these really great engineer- 
ing works much had been compiled from 
Rabbinical sources which may have seemed 
exaggeration : but the work of the Palestine 
Exploration Fund has shown that in the case 
for example of the Pools of Solomon, a suffi- 
cient illustration, of which the name represents 
the probable date, and their still existing con- 
nexions, these alone retaining a store of three 
million gallons, technical skill is indicated which 
would gain high credit now. 

In Bava Kama these rules are recorded : 
within the city, rubbish heaps and dunghills 
were forbidden, because of creeping things ; 
chimneys and limekilns, because of the smoke 
nuisance ; gardens and orchards, because of the 
smell of manure and weeds ; no dead body 
might remain one night, hence no sepulchre 



SANITARY PRECAUTIONS 59 

might be built. Though these rules are ex- 
pressly mentioned with regard to Jerusalem, 
their influence roused admiration and enterprise 
through the country. It is not quite certain 
that the 'destructor' principle was worked in 
the traditional constantly burning furnaces of 
the Valley of Hinnom, where, according to 
Lightfoot, Hengstenberg, and others, the refuse 
of the city was collected, the fluid matter being 
discharged into the brook Kidron, the rest 
burned. Gey Hinnom is admitted to be the 
source of the Greek name Gehenna, the hell of 
fire, the mouth of which was fabled to be there. 
In this sense Gehinnom is frequently mentioned 
by Talmudical writers, and the Arabic name 
Jehannum, in Egypt Gehannum, is well known. 
That the Dung Gate opened out of the almost 
central Tyropoeum, through which a leading 
thoroughfare still passes, over this valley, south 
of the city, seems to add some probability to 



60 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

the old belief, recently disputed because local 
evidence has not thus far been recognized by 
explorers. More than this cannot be fairly 
assumed. 

Isolation, the placing of infected or possibly 
infective persons out of reach, as on an island 
(Italian isola), was carefully and promptly 
effected. In the case of death, the provisions 
of uncleanness, already stated, were sufficient 
to guard against all unnecessary proximity. 
This applies in their several degrees to the 
various forms of uncleanness enumerated under 
that heading, with some additions in special 
cases, now to be considered. In lo the shorter 
term of seven or fourteen days covered the 
probable limit within which might intervene 
the dangerous sickness there referred to, which, 
in the case of disappointment at the failure of 
male issue, might perhaps be feared during more 
than a week. The belief anciently prevailed 



SANITARY PRECAUTIONS 6 1 

that the birth of a girl entailed greater and 
longer suffering and peril. 

Persons were isolated for seven days on sus- 
picion of leprosy, or of any permanent affection 
of kindred character. Four cases are described, 
Lev. xiii. 4 referring apparently to incipient 
(a) Elephantiasis Tuberculata, 2 1 to ulcerations 
as of (d) E. Anaesthetica, 26 to inflammatory 
spots, as carbuncles, showing probable suscepti- 
bility, 31 to Leprosy of the head, Morphaea 
Alopeciata (Fox Mange), Lichen of the Greeks. 
In [a) and [b) this term was extended to a second 
week, to complete the diagnosis, which in the 
other two cases would already be decisive. 
Thirteen special inspections are provided for in 
this connexion, giving particulars of symptoms 
of actual or impending leprosy, and of diseased 
conditions resembling its early stages. It is 
important to observe that the measures of per- 
manent segregation which followed the declara- 



62 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

tion of uncleanness by leprosy were of such 
a character as to preserve as much as possible 
the comfort of the sufferer, while guarding the 
public safety. Like the whited sepulchre, he 
bore distinct signs of warning. His dwelling 
was not absolutely ' alone/ but apart from all 
in health ; patients having been from very 
early times allowed to associate, as 2 Kings vii. 
3, 10, which passages show that the law of 
exclusion continued in force. The Mishna 
provided for the leper in the synagogue, where, 
before any other of the congregation entered, 
he was received on a raised platform, ten palms 
high and four cubits wide, which he did not 
leave till all the clean had departed. 

Shorter terms of isolation are assigned in 
other cases of impurity. 

I. Uncleanness till even followed contact 
with the carcase of any unclean animal ; of 
a clean one which died of itself ; (by analogy) 



SANITARY PRECAUTIONS 63 

of a clean one which had been fatally torn ; 
with anything touched by an unclean person ; 
entrance into a house having a plague in its 
walls. 

2. One discharged as clean in the case of 
a suspicious eruption, found, after seven days' 
seclusion, to be of minor importance, must 
wash the clothes before returning to society. 

3. These must wash their clothes and be 
unclean till even : one having borne the 
carcase of any unclean animal ; of a clean one 
which had died of itself (or, by analogy, of one 
which had been fatally torn) ; one who ate or 
lay in a house itself having a plague; the 
officer who gathered the ashes of the heifer 
for the water of separation. 

4. These must wash clothes and person 
before returning to society : the liberator of the 
scapegoat ; the burner of the bullock and goat 
for the sin-offering on the Day of Atonement. 



64 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

5. These must wash clothes and person, and 
be unclean till even : one having touched a 
person with diseased issue, or anything touched 
by the sufferer; one eating of what died of 
itself or was torn ; the priest who prepared 
the ashes of the heifer; the officer who 
burned it. 

6. One cured of a diseased issue must 
number seven clear consecutive days of abso- 
lute immunity, which by the nature of the case 
were days of isolation. The object is clearly 
stated by Jewish commentators to have been 
security against mistake or relapse, by which 
many might be defiled. The late sufferer was 
in this case held distinctly responsible for 
accuracy as to symptoms, an important sug- 
gestion as to social duty. The cure having 
been thus verified, the clothes and person 
must be washed, the person in running ' living ' 
water, that is, water from a spring, well, or 



SANITARY PRECAUTIONS 65 

river, not a cistern. The manifest tendency 
of this precept was to cause the acts of 
personal purification to be performed outside 
the city or town. 

7. One having touched anything in a tent 
(house) with a corpse must remain secluded 
for seven days, but pass through an inter- 
mediate lustration on the third. On the 
seventh the clothes and person must be 
washed, the uncleanness lasting till even. 

8. The restoration to society of the leper, 
after the cure had been established, was pre- 
ceded by the shaving off of all hair, the 
washing of clothes and person. Then admitted 
to the ' camp,' but remaining under exclusion 
from family life for seven days ; the leper on 
the seventh day repeated all these acts, and 
on the following day was formally restored 
to communion. To these contingencies of the 
peaceful life may be added the defilement 

E 



66 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

contracted in the Midianite campaign, Num. 
XXXI., involving seven days' seclusion under 
the conditions (3). 

Except in the provisions of section 4, the 
moral force of which, as in a few other cases, 
was the association of the notions of sin and 
uncleanness, the degree of isolation and of 
necessary physical cleansing corresponds very 
closely to the comparative danger to health 
involved in the acts thus controlled or dis- 
couraged. Special attention is desirable to the 
provisions regarding the clothes, which under 
so many circumstances become vehicles of 
disease. The practical effect of the system 
of precautions was a watchful and scrupulous 
attention to the avoidance of casual defile- 
ments, and the developement in the race of 
personal habits which have for 1,800 years 
survived the overthrow of its national life. 



CHAPTER VI 

SANITARY INSPECTION 

Periodical : Annual repair of wells and sewers. — Search for 
leaven. — Impure and feeble cattle. — Feast of Tabernacles.— 
Special : Code of signs for food test. — The Shoghet and the 
Shomer, — Accidental injuries. — Household utensils. — The 
house. — Textile fabrics. —Persons. 

Reference has been made to the repairs 
begun on the fifteenth of Adar. The wells 
were inspected, and stones which had fallen 
in removed, and the sewers examined and 
repaired; everything being done to facilitate 
safe and wholesome migration of persons 
travelling from all parts to Jerusalem for the 
Passover. And just as during the time when 
this feast was kept there the whole country 
was thus dealt with, so the scattered people, 

E 2 



68 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

among whom this rite remains in a real though 
modified form, have always and everywhere 
paid special and rigid attention to the law of 
Ex. xii. 19. 

The search for leaven in order that it might 
be removed, constituted an annual sanitary 
inspection of the most exhaustive character ; 
and taking place at the most favourable time 
of year for thorough cleansing, this was and 
is a most powerful aid to the periodical re- 
storation of healthy conditions, and their main- 
tenance as far as possible throughout the year, 
in view of its recurrence. Leaven (sour dough, 
as formerly used), being putrefactive, was ex- 
cluded from all sacrificial offerings. Similar 
obloquy attended it among the heathen Romans, 
for the same reason, ' Leaven is born from 
corruption, and corrupts the mass with which 
it is mixed.' This dictum has been confirmed 
by modern science. The religious duty of 



SANITARY INSPECTION 69 

removing it has always been in practice re- 
garded as enforcing the most rigid scrutiny 
and cleansing of the whole residence, specially 
of walls to which it might adhere, crannies 
in which fermentation might exist, floors on 
which fermented liquor might have been spilled, 
and all vessels. The whole contents of every 
cupboard and other place of store, as well as 
furniture, bedding, &c., being cleared out and 
cleaned, and often the walls and ceiling distem- 
pered and the woodwork painted, a new sanitary 
lease of the premises is taken. Descriptions 
of this inspection have been given by various 
writers. Buxtorf and Leusden minutely detail 
the method of cleansing metallic utensils in 
a caldron of boiling water, so as to scald every 
part, without which they would not be accounted 
fit for use. 

The inspection thus begun on the fifteenth 
of Adar and culminating at noon on the first 



70 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

day of the Passover, was the most thorough 
of all. But fifteen days before each of the 
three great Levitical Feasts, an inspection of 
sheep and cattle took place for tithing purposes 
(Lev. xxvii.), in which observation was made for 
exclusion of the crossbred, the diseased, the 
injured, and the weak. That of cattle was 
usually before the Feast of Tabernacles. 

The observances of this feast, about six 
months after the Passover, involved something 
of an inspection of furniture and utensils. The 
removal from the house into a booth, of which 
the construction and dimensions are Rabbini- 
cally stated, and the character of furniture 
prescribed, not only required considerable dis- 
turbance of the household, but acted as a 
sumptuary restriction, since the articles used 
must be of simple kind, scrupulous cleanliness 
being a matter of course. This change of 
habitation, with the happy open-air life, the 



SANITARY INSPECTION 7 1 

family meeting in the booth for at least two 
meals daily, commends itself to all who enjoy 
the refreshment of the simple change to a tent 
or summer-house, if only for a single meal, after 
the strain of work-a-day life. Occasional and 
special inspection was in some departments of 
very great frequency, in others rare. 

In this and the remaining chapters it will be 
necessary sometimes to refer to previous state- 
ments. Such unavoidable repetition may, how- 
ever, be of some value in bringing out several 
sides of the particulars, and showing their 
systematic harmony, as embodying the best 
principles of sanitary government. 

With regard to the inspection of animals 
for food, the statement of qualifications con- 
stituting fitness for food was distinctly and 
rightly interpreted as a positive command to 
use the most careful inspection. Hence in the 
collation by Rambam of the 613 precepts of 



72 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

the Torah we find this command stated in its 
several applications, ' to search diligently for 
the marks of beasts, birds, fishes, and locusts, 
with, in the last case, the special note ' to know 
the clean from the unclean/ The information 
given is for general guidance, and is so clear as 
to enable an ordinary observer to avoid the 
unclean. 

It is of some importance to bear this in 
mind. Plainly apparent signs are described 
as coming under broad classifications, without 
reference to scientific exactitude. ' Chewing 
the cud ' is shown by certain movements, which 
the habitual acts of the non-ruminant animals 
mentioned with this term closely resemble. 
The description is thus in its general terms 
sufficient. If only one qualification were re- 
quired, a more exact definition would have 
been sought. The inclusion of the bat among 
' fowls ' is only apparent ; the word ^^opJi) so 



SANITARY INSPECTION 73 

rendered meaning simply ' flying/ or * winged ' 
thing. In the identification of the clean, 
R. Levi says that under all circumstances 
two decisive marks must be unmistakeably 
found. Some add that three are needed 
in the case of birds. 

The inspection of slaughtered animals is 
exemplified most fully with regard to those 
killed for sacrifice, which must be without 
blemish. Lev. xxii. 21, ' It shall be perfect to 
be accepted/ Since, therefore, only the perfect 
could be used for the highest purposes, the 
effort to rear the best of every kind was 
stimulated. The rejection of the diseased 
from sacred use, and the impurity conveyed 
by that which had died of itself, led by 
degrees to the still existing regulations for 
both the methods of slaughter and the official 
inspection of the carcase. In the present day 
the slaughterer {shoghe£), who is an officer of 



74 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

the community, highly trained, and certified 
after severe examination, as in Talmudic days, 
is stringently bound, after killing the animal 
in the prescribed manner, to examine the 
viscera for any mark of disease ; and on his 
report his colleague, the watcher (skomer), 
certifies the meat as clean {kosher) by a metal 
seal on each joint, without which no Jew may 
accept it for food. Every one familiar with 
the difficulties of the ordinary sanitary in- 
spector, in guarding the public against the 
purchase of diseased meat, must recognize 
the superiority in this regard of the ancient 
Jewish practice thus still maintained. 

The qualified permission regarding that 
which died of itself, or that which was torn, has 
long been disused. Its object appears to have 
been the supply of food in case of emergency, 
but under such conditions as would prevent 
improvidence and carelessness. The later form 



SANITARY INSPECTION 75 

of the law, Deut. xiv. 21, given after the 
national organization had advanced, entirely 
forbad the eating of the former by an Israelite, 
but permitted it to be given to a proselyte, 
who would come under the law as unclean, or 
sold to an alien ; either of whom might reason- 
ably be considered as under emergency, and 
would receive it knowingly. In Ex. xxii. 31, 
that which was torn of beasts in the field is 
absolutely forbidden for food, and ordered to 
be cast to the dogs. Comparison of this with 
Lev. xvii. 15, shows no difference in the Hebrew 
word (terephaJi) rendered ' torn-of-beasts,' but 
the former passage has ' in the field.' The 
Talmudists distinguished between flesh actually 
torn by beasts, as in this case, and that torn 
similarly by accident, also that of an animal 
which had survived such injury ; noting eighteen 
classes of injury under this head. Rambam 
extended the list to seventy. Inspection was 



76 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

made, in such a case, to determine if the injury- 
was fatal. 

In case of disease, if the animal lay motion- 
less, inspection was needed to decide if it 
should be killed. This having been done, its 
fitness for food was, as in other cases, determined 
by inspection of the viscera. Food and drink 
were to be inspected in all cases of possible 
defilement. Seed for sowing was not polluted 
by contact, but if wetted, as for cooking, it 
became unclean by contact with a dead 
reptile. 

The inspection of the household utensils was 
to be of a stringent and authoritative character. 
Lev. xi. 32-38. The close covered vessel with 
a tied or cemented lid. Num. xix. 15, which 
alone could pass inspection, as not defiling its 
contents, would not be used for ordinary liquids. 
Water, wine, and milk are named among seven 
liquids said to be covered by the word ' drink ' 



SANITARY INSPECTION 77 

in the former passage, as liable to defilement, 
a dictum with which most sanitarians will agree. 
On oil the Rabbins are not in agreement, some 
thinking that its intervention would prevent 
polluting contact. 

Inspection of a house. In a second reference 
to this subject, we have now to observe the 
completeness of the examination. The empty- 
ing of the house not only removes all possibility 
of a deceptive appearance, caused by some 
domestic or industrial process carried on in it, 
but indicates at once the seriousness of the 
conditions, and the occupier s responsibility for 
the proper state of his home. The first visit is 
confined to inspection, which includes measure- 
ment of the extent of the ' plague.' The second 
is accompanied by power of correction, if pos- 
sible ; but the case is kept on record, and 
a third visit must be paid for final condemna- 
tion, or for approval of the repairs. 



78 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

The leprosy of textile materials may be con- 
sidered here, as to some extent perhaps in the 
same connexion. Here again everything is 
done to avoid the necessity of destruction, 
three inspections being in one case ordered. 
The precepts in Lev. xiii. 49 seem to refer to 
fabrics already woven and to yarn ready for 
weaving in warp or woof. The affection here 
described has been regarded as probably a kind 
of mildew such as would naturally spread un- 
less entirely removed. In the case of wool it 
might indicate carelessness in washing out its 
original alkali, which after the shearing injures 
the fibres, making them hard and brittle by 
a spreading fermentation. Flax, unless pa- 
tiently and carefully prepared by steeping, 
retains impurities which rot the fibre, originally 
less tenacious in the warm climate of Palestine 
than here. In both cases, therefore, the value 
of the inspection as enforcing diligent skill, 



SANITARY INSPECTION 79 

and preventing the dirt inseparable from decay, 
is at once perceptible. 

The inspection of persons is minutely de- 
fined, Lev. xiii., with the same care to prevent 
mistake and unnecessary loss or other suffering. 
It is clear that certain cutaneous diseases, as 
impetigo, resulting from unwholesome diet or 
uncleanly habits, some forms of herpes, leuco- 
derma, or psoriasis, sometimes traceable to 
irregularity of life, present symptoms liable to 
be confounded with the early stages of ele- 
phantiasis. Under such circumstances a second 
and third inspection, at intervals of a week, 
were ordered. At least five original forms of 
disease are instanced, three of which have been 
approximately recognized by modern medical 
science as of a character to be relieved by the 
quietness and regularity of life for which the 
seclusion ordered would give the best oppor- 
tunity. 



CHAPTER VII 

NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE AND OF 
INSANITARY CONDITIONS 

Notification Schedule. — Penalty of concealment. — Degrees 
of compulsion. 

With regard to all diseases the symptoms 
of which in any way resemble those of the 
initial stages of leprosy, the person affected 
was brought to one of the priests for inspec- 
tion. Careful reading of Lev. xiii. shows 
twenty-five various symptoms or combinations 
which render this compulsory. A valuable 
note is added by Canon Cook on verse 1 1 , 
illustrating what is stated elsewhere by him 
on the false shame which often keeps back 
sufferers till the disease has advanced too far 



NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE 8 1 

for hope of successful treatment. The abrupt- 
ness with which, in this case, without any 
period of seclusion, the person was dismissed 
as unclean, would have very much the same 
effect on the general public as the immediate 
shutting up by the Sanitary Authority of a 
shop or public resort in which a case of fever 
had been wilfully concealed. The character 
of the notification here mentioned is, like that 
of the present day, entirely separate from all 
question of medical treatment, which is not 
even suggested as any part of the duty of the 
priests, though tradition credits them with 
knowledge of the healing art. But in this 
connexion they acted simply as sanitary police, 
fully informed and authorized for diagnosis. 

It may be here observed, that in the case of 
the leprosy in a garment, the notification is 
compulsory, a fact easily accounted for by the 
danger of direct wear of clothing in any way 

F 



82 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

polluted. In that of a house having a plague, 
the owner appears by the Authorized Version 
to have an option in the matter to notify or 
not, at his own risk. But in both instances 
Rambam notes that they cause pollution ; and 
the Revised Version is much more probably 
correct in stating the notification as compulsory. 
This, the better rendering of the pointed 
Hebrew text, is supported by the Septuagint, 
Vulgate, and other versions. The expression 
here, ' it seemeth to me as it were a plague in 
the house,' clearly indicates, as it has been 
expounded among others by R. Levi ben 
Gershom, himself a medical man, a deference 
to the judgment of the qualified inspector. 



CHAPTER VIII 

DISINFECTION 

Essential principle cleanliness. — Soluble and insoluble pollu- 
tions. — Purification by water and by fire. — Rotting and saturated 
walls. — Check of putrescence. — Animal charcoal. — Aromatic 
plants. 

The system of purification, personal and 
ceremonial, which runs through the whole of the 
Levitical law, indicates that the essence of the 
Jewish life in this regard was the principle of 
cleanliness. Nothing is suggested as to the 
use of chemical detergents. Natron ('nitre,' 
sesqui-carbonate of soda) was extensively used 
in Egypt for washing linen, &c. Jerome, who 
made the Holy Land his home for many years, 
writes of the 'soap' of Jer. ii. 22 as made 

F 2 



84 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

from a herb then abundant in marshy lands. 
Vatablus identifies this as Radicula^ cudwort. 
Many such, possessing strong alkaline con- 
stituents, are indigenous, and were extensively 
used for such purpose in ancient times. There 
is no reason for doubting that these and others 
found in Egypt, as the gilloo (soap plant), some 
of which need only to be crushed for use, were 
known in the earliest days. But the copious 
use of water, and in special cases of spring 
water, went far to indicate the general prin- 
ciples of disinfection, which, according to many, 
work quite as effectively by dilution as by direct 
chemical agency. 

The treatment of the textile fabric (Lev. 
xiii. 47), by (i) washing, to ascertain if the 
polluting stain consist of matter soluble, and 
therefore susceptible of dilution and expulsion ; 
(2) tearing away the spotted part on evidence 
of a real but imperfect change caused by 



DISINFECTION 85 

washing ; (3) the total destruction by fire of the 
hopelessly infected material, is an example of 
minutely patient care truly scientific. 

The treatment of articles of various materials 
under circumstances of infection is also care- 
fully provided for. The porous earthen jar, 
of little value, must be broken, when the frag- 
ments would naturally be thrown away in the 
open air. Wooden vessels, garments, skin or 
other bags, must be steeped in water for several 
hours. (Lev. xi. 32, xv. 12.) 

In the case of spoil taken from the Midianites 
(Num. xxxi. 20-24), the directions given include 
cleansing of several classes of material defiled, 
specified as clothing, goods of animal fibre, 
and metals which could be purified by fire. 
On this Grotius notes, from Porphyry^ two 
forces are credited with purifying power, fire 
by destroying, water by washing away. The 
reason for special purification here was a moral 



86 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

one, the peculiar vileness of the Midianites 
having infected the chosen people, and there- 
fore being dealt with ceremonially as a plague. 
With this may be compared the scouring and 
rinsing of the brazen vessel used for the sin 
offering. (Lev. vi. 28.) 

The disinfection of the plagued house and 
its neighbourhood is very instructive. Certain 
stones noted as affected were to be separately 
removed, and the remaining parts of the w^alls 
scraped. The Hebrew word rendered 'scrape' 
{qazak), has the direct sense 'cut off,' and in 
all its applications, as in its Arabic equivalent, 
has a strongly decisive force, thus indicating 
the complete cutting away and removal of all 
mortar and plaster from the entire wall surface. 
The removal of the refuse stones and mortar, 
the fitting in of new stones, and the fresh 
plastering, constitute a thorough disinfection 
so far as the visible parts of the buildings 



DISINFECTION 87 

are concerned. But if a spreading mildew of 
the same kind recurred, there would be strong 
reason to suspect continuous corruption under 
the footings, drawn by capillary attraction 
through the walls, for which no remedy but 
that assigned is possible. The result would 
be the exposure of the evil, which must be 
corrected before fresh building on the same 
site. The materials removed to a distance 
from dwellings would rot in the open air and 
crumble into the soil. 

The covering with dust or ashes of the 
blood poured out, whether in the open country 
by the hunter, by the lay slaughterer, or by the 
priest who daily removed the ashes, often 
saturated with blood, from the altar to a clean 
place, Lev. vi. lo, ii, xvii. 13, all indicate care 
exactly analogous to that now recommended in 
the disposal of putrescible matter. That the 
chemical constituents of blood are practically 



88 THE SANITARY CODE OF THE PENTATEUCH 

identical in all respects with those of flesh, 
shows the value of this law on the sanitary side, 
while the excellence of the innoxious manure 
so compounded is well known. 

In the ashes of the heifer, Num. xix., there 
may be a premonition of the use of animal 
charcoal as a disinfectant. The provision of 
its special use at an intermediate stage of puri- 
fication from the worst form of tactual defile- 
ment, already referred to as on the third day, 
so giving time for and rest after the funeral 
cares, followed them so slowly as to maintain 
the sense of the great importance of this 
cleansing, completed in that case on the seventh 
day, the penalty for neglect being continued 
isolation, and that for disobedience forfeiture of 
civil and religious rights. The use of cedar- 
wood in this connexion may also be significant. 
Its oil was used by the Egyptians and Romans 
to preserve their documents. The fragrant 



DISINFECTION 89 

vapour of its burning was well known to the 
ancient world, and recognized as hostile to 
corruption. The reference is probably rather 
to the savin bush, a kindred plant abundant in 
the Holy Land, possessing the same qualities. 
Of hyssop too little is directly known with 
certainty to sanction more than a reference to 
the fact that nearly all plants suggested as 
identified with it have aromatic or detergent 
qualities. 



Conclusion. 

Two positions should be borne in mind in 
considering this whole subject. First, the 
religious obligation governing all the acts and 
conditions specified. The value of this, as 
enforcing upon a race recently elevated from 
a position almost of slavery such modes of life 
as would best sustain a free and civiHzed 
nation, was very great, considered merely from 
the temporal side, since it insured immediate 
and thorough application of principles which 
under other conditions are slowly developed 
through a long experience of mistakes, and are 
constantly opposed by inherited ignorance. It 
should not however be thought that the only 
purpose of this obligation was the ensuring of 
obedience for the preservation of mere physical 



CONCLUSION 9 1 

health. Throughout can be plainly perceived 
a defined connexion between moral and physical 
evil, so indicated as to convey deep spiritual 
teaching. Illustrations such as are found in 
Is. i. 5, 6, XXX. 26, and many passages of similar 
force, clearly refer to bodily disease as a type 
of sin, and further holy teachings as plainly 
show the direct effects of disobedience to Divine 
moral law in the generation of physical suffer- 
ing. That the sins of the fathers are thus 
visited upon the children is most sadly shown 
in our own days, and the sacredness of the 
physical powers for right useS;, dwelt upon as in 
I Cor. iii. 1 7 and parallel teachings, is absolutely 
confirmed by demographic observers. 

Next, it must be seen that, as observed in 
the outset, the complications of modern life 
have added many sources of danger, for which 
in the majority of cases modern science has 
found partial remedies rather than full prophy- 



92 CONCLUSION 

lactics. To cure the ills caused by physical 
degradations extending over many centuries, 
and multiplied in phase by millions of instances, 
is a long and difficult task. Yet even on this 
side the task of the sanitarian is definitely aided 
by consideration of the means provided by the 
Divine wisdom for reducing the general sus- 
ceptibility to disease among the people, and for 
stamping out sources of infection in the precious 
early days of their appearance. Here also it is 
conspicuously shown that in the practical life of 
a community revering the Fatherhood of God, 
the Mosaic system of sanitary law appealed to 
every man as his brother's keeper. And it is 
interesting and helpful to see that the broad 
outlines of such treatment as the latest investi- 
gations have shown to be the most effective, 
even under conditions so widely different in 
structure and detail, are clearly indicated in the 
sacred sanitary code of the Pentateuch. 



LIST OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES 



Exodus. 

xii. 19 p. 68 

xxiii. 31 75 

xxviii 52 

Leviticus. 

i. 15 31 

vi. 10 87 

„ II 57 

„ 28 86 

xi 17 

,y 32 85 

,5 32-38 76 

5, 35 35 

xii 41 

xiii 41, 79, 80 

5, II 80 

„ 47 84 

„ 49 78 

xiv 42 

XV 36 

„ 12 85 

xvii. 13 57, 87 



xvii. 15 75 

xix. 23 31 

xxii. 21 73 

xxiii. 14 17 

XXV. 4 47 

xxvii 70 

Numbers. 
xix 36, 38, 88 

'. 15 76 

5, 16 41 

„ 19 46 

xxxi 66 

„ 20-24 85 

Deuteronomy. 
xiv 17 

,; 21 75 

xxi. 23 39 

xxii. 8 55 

,, 9-11 46 

,, II 52 

xxiii. 12, 13 57 



2 Kings. 
vii. 3, 10 62 

Nehemiah. 
viii. 10 22 

Isaiah. 

i. 5, 6 91 

XXX. 26 91 

Jeremiah. 
ii. 22 83 

Matthew. 
xxvi. 6 40 

Luke. 
vii. 14 40 

John. 
xi. 39 40 

Acts. 

v 40 

XV 23 

I Corinthians. 
iii. 17 91 



INDEX 



Aben Ezra, on fruit, p. 31. 
Agriculture, laws as to, 45. 
Animals, inspection of, 71 ; 

of slaughtered, 73. 
Ashes, removal of, 57, 87. 
— of the heifer, 88. 
Ass, the, 27. 

Bachia ben Asher, on swine 
milk, 20. 

Bat, the, 26. 

Battlements, 55. 

Bava Kama, quoted, 58. 

Bee, the, 30. 

Ben Achmet, on flesh for eat- 
ing, 31- 

Birds, rapacious, 24; lacus- 
trine, 24; nocturnal, 24; 
carnivorous, 25 ; carrion 
eaters, 25 ; piscivorous, 26; 
insectivorous, 26; omnivo- 
rous, 26 ; clean, 27. 

Blood, use of, forbidden, 22. 



Blood, to be covered, 57, 87. 
Bochart, on the mouse, 21. 
Burial, early, 39. 

Camel, the, 18. 

Carnivora, forbidden for food, 

23- 

Cedar-wood, use of, 88. 

Charcoal, animal, 88. 
Chewing the cud, 72. 
Cisterns, 57. 
Clement of Alexandria, on 

swine, 20. 
'Creeping things,' 21. 
Cuckow, the, 26. 
Cystocercus, the, 20. 

Damir, on lizards, 30. 
Days of rest, 53. 
De Muis, on fruits, 32. 
Dead, the, mode of treating, 40. 
Death, mode of inflicting, 22. 
— a cause of uncleanness, 38. 



INDEX 



95 



Definition of impurity, 14. 
Disinfection, modes of, 83. 
Dress of the high priest, 52. 

Eagle, the, 28. 
Earth-closet, the, 57. 
Eating flesh, laws as to, 31. 
Eel, the, 29. 
Elephantiasis, 61. 

False shame, 80. 
Fat forbidden, 22. 
Feast days, 54. 



Hyrax, the, 18. 
Hyssop, the, 89. 

Insects as food, 29. 
Inspection, days of, 70 ; of 

animals, 71; of flesh, 73; 

of utensils, 76 ; of houses, 

77 ; of persons, 79. 
Isolation, modes of, 60. 
Issue, diseased, 37. 
Itch, 42. 

Jahn, on the plague, 43. 



Fish, use of, 28 ; forbidden, 29. Jerusalem, cleansing of its 



Fly, the, 30. 

Food, prohibitions of, 16. 

Funeral arrangements, 40. 

Galilee, population of, 13. 
Gardens, 48. 
Gehenna, 59. 
Graves, 41. 

Hare, the, 19. 

Hawk, the, 28. 

Holy Land, population of, 13. 

Honey, 30. 

Hoopoe, the, 26. 

Horse, the, 28. 

Houses, inspection of, 77. 

— disinfection of plagued, 86. 



streets, 57. 
Juda, Rabbi, on cleanness, 35. 

Lamprey, the, 29. 
Leaven, search for, 68. 
Lepers, laws as to, 62. 
Leprosy, laws as to, 41. 
— of textile materials, 78. 
Linsey-wolsey, 52. 
Lion, the, 28. 
Lizards, 30. 
Locust, the, 29. 

' Measly' pork, 20. 
Midianites, spoil from, 85. 
Mixed fibres, laws as to, 51. 
Mouse, the, 21. 



96 



INDEX 



Mules, sterility of, 50. 
Mtinster, on food, 16. 

Natron, 83. 

Nehemiah, Rabbi, on clean- 
ness, 35. 
Nitre, 83. 
Notification of disease, 15. 

Ostrich, the, 24. 

Pig, the, 19. 

Plague in a house, 42. 

Population, of Holy Land, 13; 

of Galilee, 13. 
Pots, destruction of, 35. 
Prohibitions of code, 14. 

Rambam, on swine, 20; on 

birds, 25. 
Raven, the, 28. 
Repairs, time of, 67. 
Reptiles, 30 ; contamination 

by, 34. 
Rock-badger, the, 18. 
Roofs, laws as to, 55. 
Rotation of crops, 46. 

Saltpetre rot, the, 43. 
Sanitary precautions^ 15, 57. 



Scabies, 42. 

Sepulchres, whiting of, 56. 
Sheat, the, 29. 
Silurus, the, 29. 
Skate, the, 29. 
Slaughterer, the, 73. 
Smith, Dr. A., quoted, 10. 
Soap, 83. 
Swine, 19. 

Tents, laws as to, 41. 
Torn flesh, use of, 74. 
Trichinosis, 20. 

* Uncircumcised ' fruit, 3 1 . 
Uncleanness, degrees of, 33 ; 

sources of, 36. 
Utensils, inspection of, 76. 

Valley of Hinnom, furnaces in, 

59. 
Vegetable food, 31. 

Vulture, the, 26. 

Wasp, the, 30. 

Water of purification, 37. 

Weasel, the, 20. 

Whiting of sepulchres, 56. 

Yoking, mode of, 51. 



ERRATUM. 

Page 61, line 4, read unmerciful. 



YA 27347 



